Nominate best of the best for mayor’s award

Cambridge is looking for the best of the best for this year’s mayor’s award. Hosted by the city and its training and development advisory group, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Workforce Training and Development highlights the importance of creating and maintaining a skilled local workforce.

Now in its 19th year, Derek Watral and Joseph Ronca have taken over the reigns of the organization from founding member Paul Olinski.

“What makes things different this year is that you have two previous winners of the award running things,” explained Ronca, senior manager at Kelly Services, which won the award in 2007 in the small business category.

Watral, senior accounts manager with eSentire, won in the small business category in 2009.

Since the award’s inception, workplace training has changed. No longer looked upon as an inconvenience, it has now become part of a company business plan.

“Many employers now see it as an essential retention tool,” said Ronca.

Recipients of the award tend to be organizations that have improved the knowledge, performance and skill of employees. As part of its efforts to continuously improve, the city’s training advisory group started recruiting members from the previous year’s award winners as vacancies occurred.

“Recruiting the winners for the committee has worked out extremely well,” said Debbie Fee, city special events officer. “They have a lot of great ideas.”

There are four awards categories: industrial and manufacturing; service, hospitality and retail; public and no-for profit; and small business.